One of the oldest and most universally applicable pieces of business advice is that companies should prioritise customer welfare and satisfaction. These days, creating pleasant, memorable, and consistently replicable customer experiences is more important for companies than it’s ever been. For one thing, there’s no doubt that a good customer experience (CX) helps businesses attract and retain more customers. What’s more, many tools and solutions companies use to improve their CX can also help make the business as a whole more productive.
Leveraging contemporary technology is key for businesses to take their customer experience to the next level. In particular, artificial intelligence (AI) solutions are rapidly becoming must-haves for modern companies when it comes to customer service—and for good reason. Here are 5 ways that effective AI solutions can improve CX for companies:
Improves Operational Efficiency and Productivity
For businesses to use AI solutions effectively, they must identify the areas of work where the technology would be most useful. For instance, while investing in a team messaging app is an efficient way to enhance internal communications, AI solutions are well-suited for outward-facing work such as customer service. This is in part because AI can capture higher volumes of customer data, process more concerns and queries, and respond to customers faster than human agents can.
Most of today’s customers will demand the privilege of transacting with and communicating with the businesses they patronise in real time, through the channels they find most comfortable. AI tools like intelligent chatbots make it possible for companies to receive and respond to customer concerns 24/7 in multiple languages, scoring them big wins for client satisfaction and overall profitability. The convenience and diverse support functions chatbots offer have been so beneficial to modern companies, in fact, that chatbots now make up a significant portion of the current AI market.
AI solutions also facilitate the efficient collection, consolidation, and analysis of important customer information. With access to more comprehensive, detailed insights into customer preferences and behaviour, companies can develop goods and services that are better catered to the needs of their client base.
Optimises Customer Service Workflows
One of the most successful applications of AI in customer service involves delegating basic customer service functions to chatbots. Examples of these fundamental functions include answering frequently asked questions, monitoring customer activity, facilitating checkout and payment processes, and resolving basic system issues. Chatbots can also connect a client with an available customer service agent in the event that the customer has a complex concern requiring direct human intervention.
Entrusting basic tasks to a well-programmed AI frees up human staff members to focus on the more involved customer service work mentioned above. This approach not only makes CX work smoother on the back end but also helps customers with all kinds of concerns resolve their problems faster and more efficiently.
Facilitates Seamless Lead Generation
Lead generation is a term used to describe the process of attracting consumers to a particular business and encouraging their interest in its offered products and services. There are many ways that AI solutions can improve lead generation for companies. For example, teams can use AI tools to survey and analyse user activity on official company websites, making it easier to determine what customers want or need most. Companies can then use these same tools to point customers in the direction of the products and services that are most relevant to them.
AI solutions also improve lead generation by giving companies the means to pinpoint their client base’s most common pain points, trends, and potential concerns. With these insights in hand, businesses can begin identifying and devising solutions for both present and future customer issues. A company with the ability to address customer issues before its customers are even aware there’s a problem will likely see much more business—and, by extension, much higher profits—going forward.
Prevents Employees from Burning Out
It was once speculated that artificial intelligence could serve as a complete substitute for human labor in business areas like customer service, but that’s not necessarily the case. Customers today still appreciate genuine human interaction, particularly when they need personalised advice or help resolving especially complicated problems.
Augmenting customer support operations with chatbots and other AI tools is one effective way to ensure that support agents are at their best when interfacing with customers. Happy, satisfied employees with manageable workloads and a healthy work-life balance naturally provide higher-quality service and make a better impression on clients. They’ll be able to bring all their knowledge, attention, and empathy to their engagements with the clients who need them the most instead of spreading themselves too thin doing too many menial tasks.
When applied correctly, AI can improve nearly every aspect of the customer experience, from onboarding to facilitating purchases to resolving customer concerns. Businesses that incorporate AI solutions strategically into their operations will be well on their way to providing customer experiences that far outpace those of their competitors.
